2 Mark Mansfeldsche Kupferschiefer bauende Gewerkschaft

The Mansfeldsche Kupferschiefer bauende Gewerkschaft was one of the oldest continuously operating mining enterprises in Europe — copper shale extraction in the Mansfeld district of Saxony-Anhalt had run essentially without interruption since the thirteenth century. By 1919, the company was issuing its own emergency currency (Notgeld) not out of financial distress but because of the acute small-denomination coin shortage that gripped Germany in the immediate postwar period. Industrial employers with large workforces often found it easier to print their own scrip than wait for the Reichsbank to supply adequate coinage.

The watermark security feature is worth noting — most corporate Notgeld of this period dispensed with it entirely.